Gas and flair

A clever apartment scheme is sparking new life into rusting London gasholders. Sophie Rowe gets a preview

London is full of landmarks, from ancient towers to great glass edifices, but
only recently have the relics of the industrial past started to acquire the
sort of glamour normally reserved for historic palaces or ego-boosting
skyscrapers. The iconic gasholders at King’s Cross are a case in point.

Not too long ago, the trio of skeletal iron cylinders loomed over a desolate
wasteland of semi-derelict warehouses, weed-choked canals and redundant
railway lines — it was full of the menace of The Ladykillers and the
tumbleweed stuff of TV crime dramas. Now the structures, which once supplied
gas to swathes of the city, are set to become one of the capital’s coolest
addresses. Gasholders London is the latest — and by some distance most
exciting — residential building at the 67-acre King’s Cross regeneration
site. It will officially launch at the end of this month.